their pages are realized in Him as the ideal to which they pointed.

A number of very interesting questions connected with the criticism of the Old Testament, and eagerly debated among theologians, but which have no real bearing on the prophetic argument, have been imported into this controversy; and have thereby distracted our attention from the real point at issue, which is this, and this only: Are there in the Old Testament Messianic prophecies, and a typical, symbolical, and ritual system, of the true idea of which Jesus Christ and His Church are the realization? This is a simple question of fact, and one quite distinct from any theories as to the date when the various books were written, or who may have been their authors.*

Amidst the endless theories that have been propounded on these subjects, one fact is unquestionable, that every one of the books of the Old Testament was in existence (with the possible exception of the book of Daniel) in the form in which we now read them, and consequently with all their Messianic prophecies in them, when the Septuagint Version was made, i.e. at least 180 B.C. The book of Daniel, even if we accept the latest date which has been assigned to it by the school of critical unbelief, must have been written at

*I by no means overlook the importance of these questions; but I make these observations for the purpose of keeping them from being mixed up with the evidential value of the prophetic element in the Old Testament Scriptures. Thus it would very materially affect our views of Deuteronomy if it could be proved that it was a forgery got up between Jeremiah and Hilkiah and palmed off on the simplicity of King Josiah as a genuine production of Moses. Still the great Messianic prophecy of the prophet who was to arise in the future like unto Moses would be there, and the only question would be, does it or does it not indicate a superhuman prescience? In such a case we should have to rank Jeremiah with Balaam, a false prophet who delivered true oracles. It should be observed, however, that as far as these theories are concerned, they are but theories and nothing more; the evidence on which they rest being little better than a foundation of sand. This is the case with a large number of the theories respecting the nature and origin of the Pentateuch, no

least 150 B.C. What more can we require for our argument? If there really exists in the Old Testament a prophetic element, which has been realized in the New, it is precisely the same for all the practical purposes of the Christian argument, whether the predictions were uttered 180 or 1800 years before the Christian era. In either case they prove a superhuman prescience in their author, unless by any possibility they could have been made the means of their own fulfilment. Thus if a writer had put forth a set of predictions, which foreshadowed the events of the French Revolution and the career of Napoleon the First in the year A.D. 1600, it would have been as certain a proof of superhuman foresight, as if he had uttered his predictions in the reign of William the Conqueror, or Charlemagne. I fully allow the profound interest which attaches to the question of the true date of the composition of the various books of the Old Testament. Many very important questions of theology are involved in it. It may affect our view as to the character of their contents, according as it is determined in this way or in that. But as far as the question, whether a superhuman prescience presided over their composition, or whether Jesus Christ is their perfect realization, is concerned, it is a matter of indifference whether they were composed в.c. 200 or B.C. 2000.

The same is equally true of the fiercely debated question

two propounders of them agreeing in the same view; one set of critics affirming that Deuteronomy is the later composition, and Leviticus the earlier; while another, for reasons equally satisfactory to themselves, exactly reverse this order. The only fair conclusion is, that both endeavour to erect a pyramid on its apex. Similarly, the evidence may be quite sufficient to prove that the book of Genesis is a composite document; but when Ewald not only affirms that these documents were five in number, but authoritatively assigns each part to its respective author, and that on no other foundation than his own intuitive faculty of divination, we seem to have reached the ne plus ultra of dogmatical assertion. This theory is now generally rejected, to be replaced by others erected on a basis equally unsubstantial. What we want on the part both of theologians and men of science is, not theories formed out of their own subjective consciousness, but based on facts which are capable of verification.

of their authorship. Whether Moses wrote the Pentateuch; whether it has been made up of a number of older documents; whether the book of Deuteronomy is the work of Jeremiah; whether there was an earlier and a later Isaiah; whether the book of Zechariah is the work of several writers; whether Daniel was composed by the great prophet whose name it bears, or by a later writer; however deeply interesting such questions are, or however they may be determined, all this will not add one prophecy more or less to the Old Testament Scriptures; or, if they contain prophecies which have been actually fulfilled, detract one atom from the value of the Christian argument.

I urge these considerations on your attention because there are a multitude of questions at the present day profoundly agitating the minds of theologians, on the determination of which it is commonly supposed that the life of Christianity depends. I am far from undervaluing the importance of the questions at issue, but our duty is to contemplate this subject from an evidential point of view. As such I have only to deal with a question of fact, from which we must not allow our attention to be distracted. It is this: Do the Old Testament Scriptures contain predictions respecting a Messiah and a future Kingdom of God, and are these predictions realized in the person and Church of Jesus Christ?

If the correspondence really exists between the Messianic elements of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the New, it follows that Jesus must be the Christ, and Christianity a Divine Revelation.

As this point is one of the greatest importance, I must illustrate my position by a few examples. Nothing can exceed the eagerness of the debates respecting the date and the nature of the contents of the Book of Genesis. Yet whatever theory we adopt on this subject, it will not alter the fact that the Book was in existence before the Babylonish captivity, and contained the affirmation that in Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed, and the prophecy about Shiloh, whatever value may be attached to it. So

with respect to the Book of Deuteronomy; whenever it was composed, it was certainly written several hundred years before Christ, and it contained the affirmation that at some future time a great prophet would arise like unto Moses; and it is no less certain that although the prophets who subsequently appeared were very numerous, the only one who possessed a real resemblance to Moses was Jesus Christ, Moses being distinguished from all the other prophets by the fact that he was a founder of a dispensation, in which respect Our Lord exactly resembled him. In a similar manner the whole system of the typical worship of the Old Testament was fully evolved long centuries before the Advent, and this is equally true whichever of the innumerable theories we may adopt as to the date or authorship of the different Books of the Pentateuch. The real question is simply one of fact: Is Jesus Christ and His Church a realization of the ideal involved in these types and shadows? Again: the date and authorship of the 22nd and other Messianic Psalms may be open to question, and what was the precise idea before the mental eye of their authors when they composed them. But this does not affect the fact that every one of them was in existence prior to the time of the Maccabees, and most of them several centuries earlier, and that Jesus Christ has precisely realized the idea which they embody, and that between his sufferings and those described in the 22nd Psalm the resemblance is marvellously exact. Illustrations of this principle might be adduced in large numbers, but space will only allow me to refer to two more. Whatever view we may take of the composite character of our present Isaiah, it cannot be denied that the former portion of it contains prophecies which are unquestionably Messianic; and whether the prophet intended them for Hezekiah or some other person, that these persons never realized their full ideal, but that this has been realized several centuries later by a Jewish carpenter. So also respecting the second portion of Isaiah. Even if its author lived as late as the time of Cyrus, still the great prophecy

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of the Servant of Jehovah and the future Kingdom of God must have been in existence more than 500 years before the Advent; and whatever may have been the ideas present in the prophet's mind at the time when he composed it, it is certain that they have only received a full realization in Jesus Christ and the Church which He has founded. same thing is true of the Book of Daniel. Notwithstanding all the attacks which have been made on its authenticity by modern criticism, it still remains indisputable that all its great Messianic prophecies were in existence not less than 150 years prior to the Advent; and that they announce the coming of a future Kingdom of God, which would differ from every other kingdom which had been previously set up. The important question is, have the prophecies, the typology, the moral teaching, and the aspirations of the Old Testament received in Jesus Christ and the Church which He has founded, the realization of the ideas which they embody, or are all the resemblances mere guesses such as an exalted genius may have ventured on, and occasionally guessed right?

To aid us in determining this question, let us observe what these Old Testament books really consist of. They differ from all other prophetical books in that they are not confined to the single subject of prediction, but they constitute an entire literature. Their composition extends over a space of at least one thousand years, and they are the work of not less than forty different authors, comprising men of every condition in life, including the king, the priest, the statesman, and even the herdsman. The books themselves consist of a body of political and religious legislation, of histories, poems of the highest order, the utterances of prophets on the burning questions of the day, and gnomic maxims of proverbial wisdom. Even the writings commonly called prophetical contain a large mixture of the historical element. Most of the prophets were also statesmen; and a large portion of their writings consists of exhortations called forth by the state of public affairs, and